The Bridge Between Our Sanity
by namelessjen
Summary: Caleb and Spencer are caught up in a situation that they never wanted to be in. With a new death in their lives, they have a lot of things to think about. When the harassment doesn't stop, they'll realize a lot more about that bridge.
1. Chapter 1

"Caleb don't." Spencer's voice was filled with fear as she watched her boyfriend climb over the railing. She raced over to the edge, her heart thrashed against her chest as she realised the immediate danger this situation was filled with.

"I'll just be a second." Caleb told her, before he had turned back to focus on his footwork. They shouldn't have been there, they should be tucked up together in the barn, watching a film or listening to music. This wasn't what a couple should be doing on a Thursday evening.

"Caleb." She shook her head, but he was too determined. He clung to the railing of the bridge as he shuffled along it's barriers until Spencer was too far away to talk to him.

"Sara, this isn't the way..." He spoke with a pained voice, trying his hardest not to let go of this foundation. He looked down towards the water, watching the current beneath their hanging bodies. If either of them fell, there would be no knowing where they'd end up.

The sky was dark like a raven in mid flight, he let out a shaky breath as he reached across towards Sara, who hadn't said a word. She clung to the side of the bridge like a kitten digging it's claws into a ball of yarn. Caleb was slightly terrified, and he could hear Spencer in the distance calling out his name. It was faint, but he knew she was still calling for him.

"You don't have to do this. We can fix this." He tried to plead, taking hold of Sara's arm. She felt cold beneath his fingertips, shaking like a leaf in a winter breeze. "Sara." He spoke in a whisper, turned his head to take another look at her.

Her eyes bore into him as she glanced in his direction. All she wanted was for this to be over, she didn't want to be involved any longer. Her life was in shambles, a bigger mess than anybody could even imagine. Caleb didn't understand the look on her face, it was filled with too many mixed emotions for him to decipher. His foot started to slip, his eyes closed as he felt himself starting to fall.

"Caleb!" Spencer's wails filled the air, echoing across the bridge like a banshees call. She rushed out towards the middle of the rusted out roadway, she could feel it shaking beneath her from every step. Caleb's grip on both the bridge and Sara Harvey tightened as he tried to find his footing.

"You'll kill both of us." He called up to Sara, who was still frozen with fear. She looked him in the eye and tried to pull him up, but her strength had nothing to it. Her arms shook as he body left the side of the bridge. She held onto the frame as tightly as she could with damaged hands, as Caleb tried his hardest to pull her up with his own strength.

"Just let me go I deserve it." Sara screamed up at him, all of her dangled out over the side of the steel framed bridge. Caleb was stubborn, he wasn't going to let this girl fall to her death, no matter how much trouble she was worth. He leaned over and took hold of her arm, but Sara shook her head. Her eyes were filled with tears as she let go with her second hand.

Caleb tried his hardest to hold both of their weight, his fingers struggled to maintain his grip. There Sara dangled out in the cold air, the water growled as if waiting for her fall.

"Caleb!" Spencer yelled as she climbed over the edge to be by his side. She reached out to take hold of Sara's arm, but it was too late.

The blonde fell in what felt like slow motion. The couple stared out into the dark waters, and no trace of her was left.

The moment they set foot on the roadway, back in the bosom of safety, Caleb's arms wrapped around Spencer's shaking body. This wasn't her first time around death, this probably won't be her last, but there was something about watching a person fall to their death that shook her right to her core.

There was silence on the ride home, an eerie one at that, the radio was switched off and Spencer's silent sobs were the only indication that they weren't alone. Caleb hadn't said a word, all he could do was focus on the road, on keeping one person safe that night. He didn't know what this feeling in his chest was, the devastation that loomed over his pounding chest. He never liked Sara Harvey, never cared about her dead or alive, but this was not what he wanted. He didn't want to feel this way, over someone who taunted his girlfriend, someone who helped make her life a living hell.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Spencer had no idea how to deal with the repercussions, Caleb was distant and kept burying himself in his work. She had no idea what he was working on exactly, only that he kept his nose in his laptop and was constantly typing away. He was busy typing when she came up behind him, he jumped but was soon relaxed when he realised who was behind him.

"Sorry!" She winced, not meaning to scare him. She placed one hand on his shoulder as he closed his computer and started to melt into her touch. She handed him over the coffee she'd brewed for him, before climbing over the couch to sit down beside him.

"You didn't have to do this." He told her softly, threading his fingers through hers as he held onto the familiar hand. It was a comfort feeling her warm skin pressed against his own. Her legs now crossed over his lap and he took his first sip of the scolding hot coffee before placing it down on the coffee table in front of them. "Were you trying to burn my tongue on purpose?" He asked with a laugh, turning to face her. Instantly he felt calmer, the softness in her eyes and the warmth of her smile.

She leaned forward and smirked. "Maybe." The words barely hit the air before his lips crashed against hers. The kiss was pure and kind, the feeling of comfort and sincerity overcame everything else he had been feeling that morning. The night before had been such a blur of messy events and bad decisions, he had never felt so much dread and guilt all at once, which as surprising considering all the things they've all been through the past seven years.

He moved his lips away from her mouth, and trailed a string of gentle pecks against her face, and down her neck. She smelled like cinnamon and apples, and it was probably just her shampoo, but he was addicted to it. He curled his fingers around her hair and pulled her straight onto his lap. She let out a surprised sound as he dipped his hand underneath her body, but she straddled his lap and her arms instinctively coiled around his neck.

"I'm worried about you." She whispered against his neck, but he just shook his head.

"You have no need to be." He answered and snaked his hands around her neck to cup the back of her head. She smiled and moved her mouth to his ear.

"It's my job." She whispered, sending a shiver down his spine. She pressed a few kisses along his jaw before their lips were pressed together in a playful exchange.

For the moment all thoughts of the bridge were lost, and all Caleb could think about was the beautiful girl in his arms. He moved his fingers around her front and unbuttoned her blouse, she laughed against his mouth and pulled away to help pull his shirt up over his head. It was only fair after all. She knew he was using this as a distraction from what happened, and yeah maybe they both needed to confront their thoughts about the matter, but she was perfectly fine with this for the moment.

Her fingers ran over the warmth of his naked chest, a small whimper escaped from her lips as she felt him twitching beneath her. She let out another sound as he kissed his way across her chest, and unhooked the clasp of her bra. She whined as his mouth wandered her shivering skin, goose bumps plagued against the paleness of her complexion. He rest her back against the sofa cushions on her back and kissed his way down her front.

She felt shy about the amount of noise she had been making, but he just kept smiling back at her whenever she dared to look down. He had always made her feel like the only girl in the world, like she was the only thing that was important to him. That's what made her smile everything he walked into a room, that's what made her happy to come home every evening. This was real, and she was happy.

When every inch of their bodies were naked, she pulled him back down on top of herself, wanting to feel him against her skin, wanting his body to connect with her own, that's all she wanted. She needed him just as much as he needed her.

Her nails glided across his skin as moans escaped from her tongue. He groaned as their bodies were connected, and all she could think about was the way this all made her feel. Like she could do anything, like they could do anything. She wasn't afraid, she didn't feel like they were being watched any longer. All she could feel was ecstasy.

Caleb soon collapsed against her chest, exhaustion setting through his body as they laid in each other's arms. Spencer's fingers danced across his bare spine as she pressed slow gentle kisses to his temple.

"I think I love you." Caleb whispered against her chest where his head was pressed against. She ran her fingers through his hair as a smile flashed across her chapped lips. That's something that made her heart flutter, that's something that she could get used to hearing.

"You think?" She teased, and they both smirked. He let out a small chuckle and looked up at her.

"You know what I mean." He defended with another laugh, leaning over to press a kiss to her lips. "I mean I know that I love you." He corrected, raising an eyebrow to see if she was satisfied by the clarification.

She smiled and nodded her head accordingly. "Lucky for you, I know I kinda sorta might definitely love you back." She beamed, kissing him a few more times.

This was the distraction they both needed, it was the perfect way to forget about Sara Harvey, and their involvement in her death. Spencer could barely look at Emily earlier that morning, when they'd met up for coffee. She just had to nod her head and act concerned while Emily spoke on and on about Sara and what they were going to do about her.

That guilt was since gone, and for the moment all she felt was bliss. Too bad it wasn't going to last.


	3. Chapter 3

Hanna Marin finished the last coat of her nail polish, before airing her hand out in front of her desk fan. When her phone began to chime, she cursed under her breath and reached into her pocket to fetch the device.

'A bridge over troubled rivers, it's only a matter of time before you get to the other side.'

Hanna frowned at the message, not quite understanding what it meant. The number was blocked, which meant the message was coming from Sara again. The bitch just wouldn't stop with these messages. She rolled her eyes and placed her phone down on the table beside her hand. This was getting tiring.

Her hand was just about dry when a knock on her door interrupted the process yet again. She blew on her fingertips lightly before rushing over to answer it, since her visitor wasn't letting up on the insistent knocking. "I'm coming, no need to break down the door!" She called out in annoyance before she got there.

Emily and Aria stood there together, both wearing concerned expresses on their made up faces. "Have you seen the news?" Emily asked in worry, a frown prominent on her brow as she barged into the hotel suite. Aria held up her phone opened to an article, urging Hanna to read what it said.

"I don't get it, Sara is missing? She's probably just hiding under a rock, like a lizard incubating." She said with a shrug.

Spencer wasn't there to correct her terminology, so neither girl said anything. "Sara is missing Han! Like nobody knows where she is missing..." Aria said in frustration. She'd read that article a dozen times over and still didn't know what to make of it.

"Where's Spence? Doesn't she have a Nancy Drew theory?" Hanna asked, looking between the pair.

Emily sighed and shook her head. "She hasn't been answering her phone." She confessed and Aria nodded to back her up.

"Did you try Caleb? They're probably together..." Hanna said to them, smiling because she knew what they were both thinking. They were trying to read how she thought, but she was fine. It was a bit getting used to, but she was an adult now, she just had to move on right?

"It's ringing." Aria announced before the line went to voice mail.

"Hey this is Caleb, I'll try and get back to you soon." His recording told them, and Aria bit down on her lower lip before leaving a message, telling him and Spencer to get in touch as soon as possible.

"What?" Hanna asked as Emily stared at her, it was getting highly annoying the way her friends kept treating her like she was broken glass.

"Nothing. It's just a little weird don't you think? Spencer and Caleb..." She trailed off and looked down at her feet. She didn't want to be the one to divide the two girls over a boy.

"Hello?" Hanna said as she held up her hand, pointing to the big rock on her ring finger. "I'm with Jordan now, stop acting like we're in high school they think they want to be together, I'm cool with it. Whatever. It's not like I'm sitting here pining after my high school boyfriend." She pointed out. Aria's eyes widened as she looked away, she didn't know if she was entirely convinced just yet, but if Hanna wanted to stick with that she was going to play along.

"What are we going to do about Sara?" Emily asked awkwardly trying to change the subject. She wasn't so great at this kind of thing, but she really didn't like the way she felt about this whole ordeal. Sara was out there and they needed to figure out where.

"I got a text just before you came. So she's obviously fine wherever she is, hell or the spa who knows..." Hanna said with a shrug as she opened the message to show her friends.

"If Sara is okay enough to send messages, then maybe that whole guilt thing was just a big act?" Aria concluded from this, and Emily nodded her head in agreement. She wasn't sure what any of this meant but she knew she was going to get to the bottom of this sooner or later.


	4. Chapter 4

"I really don't want to get up." Spencer whispered after the sun had gone down. They were still sprawled in each other's arms, snuggled up with the warmth of each other's body heat.

Caleb groaned as he pulled away, yawning slightly as he stretched his long arms up over his head. "We should probably eat something. Your stomach has been rumbling all afternoon." He pointed out, reaching over to the back of the couch to pick up his shirt. He stood up, only wearing a shirt and Spencer giggled as she covered her eyes.

He shook his head and smiled to himself as he searched around for his trousers. "It's not like you haven't seen it before." He pointed out as he stepped into his boxers and redressed. She nodded and peeked up at him through her hands.

"I really don't know what it is about you, that turns me into a giggling school girl. It's very unprofessional." She pointed out as she reached out to pick up her bra. It didn't take long before they were both fully dressed, with only a memory of everything that had happened earlier on. Spencer wandered back to the kitchen where he cell phone was sitting, and unlocked it. "Oops." She said aloud as she realised how many missed calls and messages. "Must have left it on silent." She commented as she dialled Aria's phone number.

"Spence! Where have you been? We've been trying to get a hold of you all day!" Aria exclaimed on the other end. Caleb walked in and leaned his head over so he could hear the conversation.

"Sorry Aria, I fell asleep. I didn't realise I was America's most wanted today." She said into her receiver as she gave Caleb a bothered look. She really didn't want to feel guilt over the way they spent the day, something that felt so good couldn't be that bad could it?

"Sorry. It's just you really need to read this article, I'm sending it to you now." Aria told her. Spencer could hear her friend typing on the other end, until she reviewed the message and put Aria on speaker phone.

"You're on speaker, Caleb's here." Spencer warned her, but it was Aria she was pretty harmless really. Out of anyone it would have probably been Emily who said something awkward, or maybe not. She just got the feeling that Emily wasn't too keen about her new relationship.

"Hi Aria." Caleb said awkwardly, giving Spencer a frightened look. She didn't have to pull him into this, but he was glad she had saved him from any awkward discussions about Hanna at least.

Spencer opened the article and nudged Caleb to read it along side of her. "Sara's missing." Spencer said out loud, feeling her heart speed up. She looked over at Caleb who's face had drained away any colour that had been there. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Hanna got another text so we know she's fine. It's just creepy how she's a missing person. What is she playing at?" Aria asked down the line, clearly unaware of the couple's involvement or knowledge of Sara's whereabouts.

"I'm sorry to do this, but my mom needs us, something to do with her campaign. I'll call you back later though." Spencer panicked, ending the call without letting Aria respond. She turned straight to Caleb and reached out to take both of his hands.

"She can't have survived that fall could she?" Caleb asked her, fear in his eyes. He didn't know what to think right now, if Sara was alive, would she come after them for letting her fall? He didn't know. All he knew was that they weren't going to escape what happened that night. Because if Sara was truly dead, then there was somebody out there who knew what happened, somebody who was going to make them go down for it.

"Aria sent through Hanna's text from earlier." Spencer told him, looking down at her phone with a frown. She passed it over to her boyfriend who felt sick, his suspicions were right. Someone knew everything and this wasn't going to go away.


	5. Chapter 5

Spencer laid back against her satin pillows and bit down on her bottom lip. It felt like her head hadn't stopped spinning in days. She hasn't had any time to herself, which wasn't highly unusual but entirely exhausting. She just needed to close her eyes for a moment.

She hasn't seen Caleb in almost three days, both having been busy and all. It was terrible, but she relaxed against his touch as he wrapped his arms around her body, snuggling into her neck as he went straight back to sleep.

She closed her eyes hoping to fall asleep as easily as her boyfriend, but she had no such luck. Her head just kept jumping back to everything that had happened in the past few days. All she wanted was to fall asleep, and to let her dreams take her off into another world.

It would have been too easy to just take a sleeping pill and let it whisk her away into the land of nod, but that wasn't a path she was willing to go down again she just couldn't do that to herself. That part of her life was left behind a long time ago, and all she wanted was to leave that in the past. She let out a series of tired breaths and closed her eyes in desperation. She just couldn't get to sleep.

Caleb was lightly snoring against her skin, but that wasn't the problem. She just couldn't stop thinking about what she'd done. It was haunting her.

When morning came, she realised she must have dozed off, which was probably a good thing except for the fact that she felt like death. She climbed out of bed, the sunlight glistened against her negligee as she tiptoed across to the kitchen.

A pot of coffee was brewing by the time Caleb had woken. He walked out to greet her, pressing a kiss to her neck from behind, a ritual they've both become accustomed to over the past few months. "Morning." He breathed as he played with her hair. Her eyes closed as she milked up the familiar feeling.

"Morning." She repeated, twisting her arm up behind herself to touch his face. She was tired, and a little groggy, but all she wanted was to savour these moments alone. She leaned back and pressed a kiss to his chin before pouring them both a mug of steaming hot coffee.

"I've got a whole bunch of meetings today." She said as she passed over a mug of joe. Caleb nodded and rubbed his tired eyes.

"Your mom's got me pretty busy as well." He admitted, playing with the stubble on his chin. He didn't have any complaints about having a job that he mostly loved, but it was Valentine's Day, and he wished he could just take off and spend the day with his girlfriend.

Spencer let out a yawn and looked back at him with a warm concealing smile.

"Did you talk to Hanna? She said her mom needs you to do some kind of backing up for the Radley." She told him, frowning in concentration as she tried to recall exact details from her conversation with Hanna.

"I haven't talked to her, no. I'll go down there later, see what Ashley needs."

"Okay, well maybe we can get lunch? Or dinner, or drinks if it gets too late..." She suggested, placing her hand atop of Caleb's on the counter. A smile spread across his lips as he looked down at their embrace.

"That sounds great. I'll let you know." He said to her, before leaving the room.

Spencer opened her fridge in search for something to eat. She didn't have much luck and looked through old take out containers to see what she could scrounge up.

When Caleb returned her placed a small box down on the counter, and waited for Spencer to notice. It took a while, she just kept rambling about their lack of food, and not having time to shop for groceries. She was really tired after all. When she did spy the box, their eyes met as her mouth turned up in a delicate smile.

"Caleb..." She said daringly before reaching out to open it. He just smiled and took a sip from his mug. "Happy Valentine's Day." He told her with a smirk.

"I didn't get you anything." Spencer complained before she had finished opening the ribbon. She instantly felt bad and didn't know what that meant. She's never really been great at this kind of thing, she didn't know what stage of their relationship they were in and it made her nervous.

She opened the box and a small gasp fell from her lips as she looked at the beautiful diamond earrings. They weren't real diamonds, but the sentiment was the same. They were gorgeous.

"Thank-you." She breathed, walking around the counter until they were both standing together. She pulled him down for a kiss, feeling so many emotions pulsing through her body. She was tired and emotional, and oh hell she loved this man. She did.

They kissed until they were running out of air, and time. They both had to get going, which was the worst part about being an adult Spencer had to admit. "I'll call you." Caleb promised her, knowing they both had to rush off at any moment.

"I'll look forward to that call all day..." She told him, running her hands down the front of his bare chest. He smiled and took hold of both her hands.

"Don't work too hard." He whispered and gave her another quick kiss. Spencer touched her lips instinctively as she watched her boyfriend rush off to the shower.

She could get used to these kinds of mornings. She took her phone from it's charger and scrolled through her unread messages. She had a busy day ahead and all she could think about was the man in her shower.


End file.
